Google Announces New Nexus 7; Comes with Qi Wireless Charging

As expected, Google today announced the successor to the popular Nexus 7 Android tablet.

Specs of the new 2013 Nexus 7 line up to what have been leaked so far: Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core 1.5GHz processor, Adreno 320 GPU, 2GB RAM, 7-inch 1,920 x 1,200-pixel IPS LCD display (323ppi) with 30% wider color gamut (this makes the new Nexus 7 the world’s highest-res 7-inch tablet), 5-megapixel rear and 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera, virtual surround sound processing, NFC, and 3,950mAh battery for up to 9 hours of HD video playback or 10 hours of web browsing. The one thing that caught us by surprise is that it has built-in Qi wireless charging. Software-wise, it runs Android 4.3, with support for multi-user with restricted profiles, Bluetooth Low Energy, and OpenGL ES 3.0. Google has also launched a new Play Games app that lets you track game achievements, and play with others around the world.

On a related note, Android Police already has benchmarks of the device. It pulls in an AnTuTu score of about 19,000 to 20,000, a Quadrant score of about 5,500, and a 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme score of 7,188.

The new Nexus 7 will go on sale in the U.S. starting July 30. The 290g, Wi-Fi-only 16GB model goes for US$229 and the 32GB model US$269. There’s also a 299g 32GB model with LTE support, and this goes for US$349. For international markets, the new Nexus 7 will launch in the UK, Japan, Germany, Canada, France, South Korea, Spain, and Australia in the coming weeks.